Yemen, 2013

Allow

me, at the outset to extend sincere my congratulations

to Ambassador John Ashe, President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. We are confident

that he will ably guide the work of the Assembly during

this session. I also extend my thanks and gratitude

to Mr. Vuk Jeremi., President of the Assembly at

the previous session, for his efforts. We wish to

thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his wise

leadership of the Organization and for his interest in

the developments taking place in the world and in my

country.

It is a felicitous coincidence that the sixty-eighth

session of the General Assembly coincides with the

celebrations in my country in honour of the September

and October revolutions. Allow me, from this important

international rostrum, to congratulate the great and

valiant people of Yemen on this important occasion

and to commend the country and people of Yemen for

their resilience and their sacrifices in emancipating

themselves from the yoke of colonization, injustice,

oppression and despotism.

I also wish to congratulate the people of Yemen for

wisely and patiently forging ahead on the path of change

and modernization for more than 50 years and for their

determination to rid themselves of all the remnants

of the past. I commend them on their stewardship of

the historic political change, chief among them the

implementation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

initiative, with the support of international and regional

communities. From this rostrum, I wish to commend

my country’s youth for its leadership throughout the

transition process in building institutions, enhancing

and promoting freedom and democracy, and building a

new Yemen where justice, liberty and good governance

prevail.

The values of justice, freedom and equality, respect

for human rights and the maintenance of international

peace and security are the main pillars and principles

on which the United Nations was established. Because

of our firm belief in those values and principles, we

have always sought to implement and promote United

Nations instruments and to support peaceful coexistence

among nations. Perhaps the lofty and noble purposes

and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations and all its instruments served as inspiration in

the political settlement and the comprehensive national

dialogue that we have been pursuing for more than six

months.

Those purposes and principles are also reflected in

two aspects of the current situation. First is our desire

for coexistence and consensus, our rejection of violence

and our preference for the language of dialogue and

logic and reason. The second aspect is the fact that

Yemen is considered a unique model that should be

followed, given the tremendous change being witnessed

in our region. The acute crisis that befell Yemen in 2011

reflected internal understanding and tolerance and a

desire for coordination with regional and international

partners.

In that context, we wish to reiterate our thanks

and appreciation to all those who stood by the people

of Yemen and by the political settlement embodied in

the Gulf initiative, chief among them the Custodian of

the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz

Al-Saud; the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council

and the GCC Secretary General, Mr. Abdul Latif bin

Rashid Al Zayani. I also extend my thanks to Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon and to Security Council members

for visiting Yemen on two occasions.

As my country is a unique model among the

countries in which the Arab Spring is unfolding, those

visits have enhanced the new approach, which is based

on the GCC initiative and Security Council resolutions

on Yemen. We thank the five permanent members of the

Security Council for their unified vision with regard to

Yemen, which made it possible for us to forge ahead

with the political process and crown it with success.

We also extend our appreciation to the League of

Arab States, the European Union, Germany and all the

relevant international organizations and institutions, as

well as to the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General

on Yemen, Mr. Jamal Benomar, for his efforts to achieve

reconciliation between the parties in Yemen.

As the Assembly is aware, my country has made

great strides in the implementation of the GCC initiative

and its mechanisms. We are now turning to the second

phase, that of concluding the work of the comprehensive

National Dialogue and forging ahead with our plan to

shape our future. The results of this endeavour will lay

the foundations for the establishment of a new, modern

Yemen where democracy, the peaceful transfer of

power, the promotion of freedom, justice, partnership,

equality and equal opportunities for all citizens prevail.

Those foundations will enhance the authority of the

State, the rule of law, security, stability and the unity

of Yemen.

We are also forging ahead with strengthening

security and stability in our country and restructuring

the military and security institutions, so as to bolster

their main national task — to be loyal to the State

rather than to parties or individuals. We are certain that

our brethren and our friends will assist us in our new

endeavour, namely, the drafting of the new constitution

and the holding of a referendum on it, as well as in our

preparations for the next presidential and parliamentary

elections.

The achievements being made and that will be

made, in the ongoing political process depend heavily

on the support of the international community and on

enhanced partnership and cooperation between the

international community and Yemen, especially as

there are internal and external parties that continue

to attack the will of the Yemeni people. Those parties

are making every effort to obstruct the achievement

of political settlements and to target all the factors of

stability and the foundations of development in my

country. Such acts require the appropriate international

measures so as to deter and punish all those who are

trying to defeat this unique model in the region.

There are a multitude of factors at play, particularly

the increasing unemployment rate, growing levels

of poverty, and poor social services in general. All

those factors exacerbate instability and create a fertile

environment for the actions of extremist groups such

as Al-Qaida. However, eliminating them effectively

requires all kinds of logistical, financial and technical

support through practical programmes and plans that

do address not only the symptoms, but also the root

causes of those phenomena.

We need the international community’s support

in implementing our national counter-terrorism

strategy. That is why the fulfilment of pledges by donor

countries and the Friends of Yemen must be accelerated,

particularly since the Government of Yemen has been

working in partnership with donors to earmark and

allocate all those funds to various development areas.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank all our

donors, especially those who have already made good

on their pledges and financial commitments to Yemen.

That is particularly important in view of the fact

that Yemen, owing to its geographic location, social

composition and economic status, has been plagued

by various problems and challenges. They include the

activities of Al-Qaida and of cross-border organized

crime and national and international criminal groups

trafficking in drugs, weapons and people, as well as

the piracy off Yemen’s coasts. Addressing all those

problems requires international cooperation for the

security of the country and the region as a whole.

We would also like to bring up the issue of refugees

in Yemen, especially from the Horn of Africa. We

have been hosting more one million of them, with

all the economic, social and security difficulties that

such a situation entails. We are therefore calling on the

international community and relevant organizations to

help us to deal with the issue and mitigate its negative

impact on Yemen. We must find new ways and means

to help the Government care for the refugees and help

them to return to their homes, especially since those

countries have lately seen their stability restored to

some degree.

Conflicts and bloody events, especially in the

Middle East, are contrary to the lofty goals of the United

Nations, which is why the international community

must revisit the structure and working methods of the

Organization and make the reforms necessary to enable

it to effectively discharge its responsibilities for the

maintenance of international peace and security and

to revitalize its role. In that regard, we should mention

the despair and frustration of many Arab and Muslim

nations over the failure to end the Israeli occupation

of Palestine, arrive at a just solution to the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict and put a stop to all the occupying

Power’s oppressive measures and practices and attempts

to Judaize the holy city of Jerusalem, expand settlement

activities, detain Palestinian citizens and excavate

illegally around the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

We also wish to denounce the use of chemical

weapons, especially in Syria, by any party. We

call on all the parties in the Syrian conflict to stop

the bloodshed, agree to a dialogue and to work

towards a political settlement and reconciliation

and reconstruction. We call on the international and

regional parties concerned to intensify their efforts to

achieve a peaceful settlement of the crisis. A “Geneva

II” conference should be convened as soon as possible

in order to put an end to the violence, killings and

bloodshed in Syria. Recent events have demonstrated

the challenges facing the United Nations in this area,

particularly regarding the disagreement between

permanent members of the Security Council, which was

a pretext for certain groups to opt for unilateral action

outside the international legitimacy represented by the

United Nations. The Council needs thorough reform for

it to be able to carry out its primary task, which is the

maintenance of international peace and security and

the peaceful settlement of conflicts.

Concerning the brotherly country of Somalia

and our support for it, we call on the international

community to continue to stand by it in order to enable

it to overcome its long legacy of conflict and suffering.

Finally, I would like to thank the President and the

Secretary-General once again.